Thanks to all the I'm-Smarter-Than-Everyone-Else-And-The-Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Me-So-_ _ _ _-You people who were visiting the St. Louis Gateway Arch and illegally parking in the completely full Old Cathedral parking lot yesterday, I got the opportunity to walk past the Arch and take some pictures of St. Louis' famous Gateway to the West.

The wrinkles in the 1/4 inch exterior stainless steel plates are readily visible and began to appear just months after construction was completed.

The inner shell of the Arch is carbon steel, while the outer skin is stainless steel. The stainless steel has a 50% greater coefficient of thermal expansion than the carbon steel. When heated by the sun, the massive panels of stainless steel which were perfectly flat on the ground, buckle predictably, high on the arch. The effect is cosmetic only and does not affect the structural integrity of the 630 foot tall catenary arch.

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to take off work and go with Drew's class to the Tulsa Zoo for a field trip. Below are some of the animals we got to see...from far away...and close up:

The big cats are always my favorites. We were fortunate to catch this proud lion walking around. Later he even roared for us, just so there was no confusion who was the king of the jungle...or, in this case the Tulsa Zoo.

The lion close up.

The Amur Tiger was keeping a close watch on everything from a comfortable position in the shade. I don't think there's a more beautiful wild animal than a tiger.

The Amur Tiger close up.

The Spectacled Bear took some time out of his busy schedule of eating and napping to pose for the camera.

The Spectacled Bear close up.

This Chimpanzee looks like he's seen it all. He was completely unfazed by some little chimpanzee's flying around their habitat. He was content to slowly munch on his snack.

The Chimpanzee close up.

This White Rhinoceros was doing some grazing when we spotted him.

The White Rhinoceros close up.

This seal was taking it easy today, lounging around in the shade while still enjoying the warm sun on his face.

The seal close up.

We caught this African Penguin right before he took the plunge into the water.

The African Penguin close up.

As always, the American Flamingo doing what it does best, standing around.

The American Flamingo close up.

Click on "Continue reading" to see pics of Drew, me, his pre-k class and Drew almost being eaten by a lion!

Drew and me on the train at the start of our day at the zoo.

Drew almost being eaten by a lion!

A handsome young boy and a beautiful background of blooming spring trees and daddy composes the most boring picture in the world...bad photographer, bad.

Besides being the only child with a face, Drew tends to stand out a little from the rest of his class. (Actually, Drew's about the same height as the boy on the far left.)

Drew celebrated his friend Aidan's birthday today at SSB Kids! in Broken Arrow. It's a 20,000 square foot multi-sport center which was set up with enough inflatables, running, jumping and climbing activities, obstacle courses and foam pits to tire out the most energetic five year-old.

A very attentive staff kept the kids well organized and having constant safe fun. I asked Drew what he liked the best and he said, "All of it."

Drew showed no hesitation completing the different obstacle courses available. It was really a nice facility which I hope we get to go back to in the near future.

Today, Drew, Will, Mama, Ma and Pa went to the Tulsa State Fair. Drew and Will are feeding a baby bison.

This photo begs for a caption contest. I'm not sure who's behind the bars, the sheep or Will.

Drew is a long-time pony rider and had no trouble keeping his steed under control.

Will absolutely loved riding the ponies and Pa was always nearby to keep things safe.

Will was quite the flying saucer driver. All was well until he put his foot to the floor...

When things sped up, Drew did all he could to keep from crushing his little brother. Knowing that the smallest rider will likely get the most enjoyment out "steering," wouldn't you design the ride so that the steering wheel was on the left to avoid big rider squishing little rider?

Rest easy though, this year the State of Oklahoma tested all ride operators on the proper operation of the rides they were operating and, under these stringent safety examinations, the operators had to score...I'm not making this up...70 percent. So, of course, it was a huge shock when a car on the kids' ride The Rio Grande Train went off the tracks injuring three children.

Mary, Drew, Will and their friends Miss Cindy, Abigail, Nathan, and Adam all went to the Tulsa Zoo this week.

The first exhibit was the wild monkeys...a scarier group of simians I've never seen.

Drew and Will rode the carousel. Drew rode an elephant while Will rode a sea lion. More pics of the zoo adventure after the jump.

Some of the animals weren't out in the mid-day heat, but the black bear didn't seem bothered as he strode around his habitat.

The flamingos did what flamingos do best...stand around, sometimes on one foot.

The American alligators maintained their cool swimming around.

One of Mama's favorite's exhibits was the poisonous frogs. This is the Blue Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates Azureus).

Next, was the Yellow-Banded Poison Frog (Dendrobates Leucomelas) and the Green and Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates Auratus).

Finally, all the little monkeys climbed aboard the Tulsa Zoo Express for a ride.

While at Aunt Michelle and Uncle Matt's, Michelle, Gillian, Mary, Drew and Will got to go to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in Overland Park, Kansas. Established in 1978, the Farmstead was designed to depict a turn of the century farm and the promotion of family values. The beautiful and diverse park was renamed in 1985 in honor of Overland Park police officer Deanna Rose.

Michell and Gillian take a milk break while Will relaxes in his travel stroller.

Drew really enjoyed the 1900s one-room schoolhouse and writing on a slate tablet. Other attractions include a 5,000 square foot dairy barn, an Indian encampment with a 600 log earthen lodge filled with artifacts and furs surrounded by tepees, a nature trail with a butterfly garden, chime garden and repose area, a Johnson County Master Gardeners area and a prairie playground.

Other activities at the Farmstead include pony and horse drawn wagon rides, a fishing pond, stream mining, goat bottle feeding and making schoolhouse crafts.

Will in the dairy barn pointing to a cow, something he doesn't get to see every day.

Click "Continue reading" to see selection of animals the kids got to see.

My firm attended this years OADC (Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel) winter meeting tonight at the Gaillardia Country Club in Oklahoma City.

Dinner was really good for such a large crowd and included crab cake appetizers which Mary said were the best she'd ever had, Caesar's salad, beef and salmon fillets and cheesecake for dessert.

Afterward everyone got their groove on. Click on "continue reading" for a view of the party bus ride home.

We had so many people attending, about a dozen, that the firm provided a limo-bus for round trip between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It was a great idea and really allowed everyone to relax, enjoy each other's company and forget about the recent bad weather.

Last week we all attended the opening night of a co-worker's daughters exhibit at the Tulsa Artists' Coalition Gallery.

The event was very well attended and equally received. It was Will's first art exhibit. Drew was very impressed and liked the ceramic cricket cages the best.

My co-worker's daughter created all the ceramic pieces. She describes her work as focusing on the overlooked beauty of natural objects and the female form. She also paints which was more of the focus of a previous exhbit.

Over Christmas we got together with my college roommate, Jon Platt, and his family. He had the terrific idea of getting our families together at the Chicago Botanical Garden where they had on display the Wonderland Express miniature train exhibit.

The 10,000 square foot exhibit featured 750,000 twinkling lights, 75 miniature Chicago landmarks handcrafted from all natural materials and 9 different model trains.

The landmarks included all the famous buildings Chicago is known for as well as hidden gems such as a tiny Mrs. O'Leary's cow, Sue the T-Rex and a Michael Jordan statue.

The trains ran over bridges, under trestles, past waterfalls and included a variety of passenger and freight trains with steam and diesel engines.

Click on "continue reading" for more pictures of the grounds, wildlife, sculptures and family.

Despite being the "off season" the gardens were very beautiful. The chilly weather also meant there were almost no other people which made the stroll through the gardens that much more peaceful and enjoyable.

This is a view of the very beautiful Japanese Garden.

I couldn't help but take a number of reflection shots. In the middle of the last one is the Memorial Bell Tower which features 40 bronze bells cast in Holland. It is one of very few hand-played carillons in the nation and very much reminded these University of Illinois grads of the Altgeld Hall Tower bells.

These are balls of Christmas lights which are quite spectacular lit up at night.

On the left is the top of the Guardian, by Simon Verity (English b. 1945), created in 1992 of Minnesota limestone, Arizona jasper, Arkansas quartz and Portuguese copper. On the right is the Composition in Stainless Steel #1 created in 1985 by Gidon Graetz (Israeli b. 1929).

This is the bronze sculpture of Carolus Linnaeus created in 1982 by Robert Berks (American b. 1922). Linnaeus (1707-1778) was a Swedish physician and father of modern taxonomy who established binomial nomenclature, the international system of naming plants and animals that is still in use today with modification.

There were plenty of ducks and geese taking advantage of the mild conditions.

Catherine and Drew called a truce to King-of-the-Hill atop a rock with the inscription: "May the peace of this garden bring you contentment."

Thanks to the ever prepared Eagle Scout Jon, we were able to travel in style in one of their double strollers. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of Charles and Harrison...they're fast!

The Danz's at the Chicago Botanical Garden.

Today, Ma Danz, Aunt Donelda, Mary, Drew and Will traveled to Goltry, Oklahoma, to see friends, relatives and the family farm where Ma Danz grew up. Everyone got to see Will for the first time while Drew got up close and personal feeding horses and cows.

I can still vividly remember the water that used to come out of that windmill back in the 70s. To me all waters taste the same, bottled, tap or anything else...at best it won't have any flavor or aroma. But, the water that came out of that windmill straight from the ground was amazing, it was incredibly cold and tasted so good...I can't describe it and I've never had anything like it since.

This week, Mary, Drew, Will, Ma and Pa went to the Tulsa State Fair. I'm glad Ma and Pa got to go and enjoy the fair with the boys while I was at work. Otherwise, if I had gone, I'd have been my usual Drew/Will hog and they would have been relegated to spectators.

There was lots to do. Drew is especially proud of the tower he built. And, although the picture doesn't really show it, Drew was very excited about riding the ponies and ran right up them to get a ride. I shouldn't be surprised, last October Drew showed that he was a natural bucking bronco rider.

Drew was not at all excited about the petting zoo and announced early on, "I'm ready to see something else." Everything changed when he discovered that he could feed the animals. As a result, for Drew, this was the highlight of the day.

Mary and Drew show their bravery as they pose for a photo with Macaws on their shoulders. Mary looks like she's having a good time, but Drew's not about to take his eyes off his new friend. I'm amazed by how old Drew looks in this picture...he's only two! Maybe it's the hat...no more baseball hats...I want my two-year old back!

Mary took a day trip out of town today for one of her volunteer activities so Drew and I had a boys day out at La Fortune Park.

The first thing we did was take a three mile stroll on the track that goes around the park. Drew walked about half and rode in the stroller about half. The little guy surprised me at how much he walked and even ran! I think seeing everyone else jogging made him want to jog too.

There are enough twists, turns, scenery and things going on, from construction to sports, to see that Drew never got bored. Every few minutes we'd stop for a second to watch an activity or to take a closer look at something.

We got to see people playing golf, baseball, tennis, frisbee, swimming and, of course running and walking. We also saw lots of birds, squirrels, ducks geese and dogs.

At the end of our walk, we wound up at the playgrounds. The park is nice in that it has different age appropriate equipment areas. Even better, the equipment was well shaded. Drew had a great time climbing, sliding, swinging and just exploring.

Today we joined the ranks of 46 million other people and saw Sesame Street Live. Drew had a great time seeing all his favorite Sesame Street characters live on stage. The show was all about Super Grover who had lost his superness.

The letter of the day was "K." The number of the day was "1" but at the Number of the Day Gym they weren't getting much exercise doing just one repetition so the number "0" joined in so they could do "10" repetitions. We learned about sometime foods, anytime foods and eating foods of different colors. We also learned about the importance of napping, exercise and good hygiene all with the help of the singing and dancing Sesame Street gang. With all the lessons learned, Super Grover was able to get his superness back!

Drew's Aunt Donelda was in town visiting this weekend and so was the Akdar Shrine Circus. So, off we went to the Tulsa Fairgrounds.

The day provided a number of firsts...it was Drew's first circus, Drew's first taste of cotton candy and Drew and Daddy's first elephant ride.

The circus was nothing less than amazing. There was everything you'd expect from a three ring circus from clowns, acrobats and jugglers to animal trainers and death defying performers high up in the big top (or in this case Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion). The acts also included many lions, tigers, bears, camels, horses, ponies and dogs.

There were so many acts, sometimes in all three rings at once, that I couldn't begin to name them all. Incredibly, only one act, the trapeze, used a net despite many performers being high above the cement floor when they entertained the crowd.

With intermission, the performance lasted three hours and gave us all plenty to talk about afterwards.

These are the first two photos of a sampling from the parade I've posted here. They were taken curbside along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., during the 4th of July, 2005 Independence Day Parade. We were ideally located across from the Environmental Protection Agency, in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Behring Center, between two concrete planters so that we wouldn't be squashed by the crowd. Many participants in the two hour long parade have been omitted, but what is shown is in the correct order.

As is evident from the photo, we watched 4th of July fireworks on the Mall in Washington D.C. Click "continue reading" for two more photos.

A 1000 points to anyone who can correctly guess where this picture was taken.

Of course, the points don't matter, just like the Constitution doesn't matter to a liberal judge making a ruling.

[Update...July 5, 2005]

AND THE WINNER IS...Keith Eubanks of Voice Potential who correctly guessed or, more accurately, knew that the "Oklahoma" was from the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Keith spent a few hours at the memorial the week after it opened on April 29, 2004, and recalled its details so well that he was able to recognize it from the little teaser photograph.

So...Mary, Drew and I just got home after spending the 4th of July weekend in Washington, D.C. After a lot of sight seeing, we saw the Independence Day Parade from curb-side seats on Constitution Avenue and were on the Mall for fireworks. Needless to say, we had an amazing time and fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine (being in D.C. on the 4th). Pictures will be posted in the following days.

This is my first effort at taking and stitching together panoramic photos. While not perfect, they turned out better than I imagined and really help to recreate the scene better than individual photos. (Click on the pictures to open the full size panoramas in a new window.)

The first panorama was taken from San Francisco's Embarcadero Waterfront looking north out into the San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate Bridge is on the left and Alcatraz Island is on the right.

The second panorama was taken from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area just on the other side of the bridge looking east and south out into the San Francisco Bay. Angel Island State Park is on the left followed across to the right by open bay with Oakland in the background and then in quick succession, Alcatraz Island, the Oakland side of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island, the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge, downtown San Francisco, more of San Francisco, Sutro Tower and finally the Golden Gate Bridge on the far right.

The third panorama was taken from the northwestern side of San Francisco. On the left is the Dutch Windmill in the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden which houses a pumping station which irrigates Golden Gate Park. Looking south there is a long stretch of beach at low tide and finally looking west out in the Pacific Ocean you can see the Seal Rocks on the far right which are swarming with sea lions.

Continuing on with pictures from our recent trip to San Francisco, click on "continue reading" to see the best of our non-Golden Gate pictures.

As we sat on a park bench along the Embarcadero Waterfront looking north out on the San Francisco Bay, on our left was the Golden Gate Bridge and a little to the right was Alcatraz Island, known as "The Rock." Originally a defensive fortress designed by the U.S. Army to protect the city and bay in 1853. It started to receive Civil War prisoners in 1861.

In 1934 the U.S. Army pulled out and the island was converted into a federal ultra maximum security penitentiary and eventual home of such infamous prisoners as Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz."

To our far right, looking out into the bay, was the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly known as the Bay Bridge. The bridge has two major segments which connect Yerba Buena Island with each shore. The dirt and rock excavated to create the Yerba Buena Tunnel was used to create the artificial Treasure Island which is connected to Yerba Buena Island. The pictures here are of the western segment terminating in San Francisco which consists of two suspension bridges with a central anchorage. The eastern span terminating in Oakland consists of a truss causeway, five medium span truss bridges and a double tower cantilever span.

Opened in 1936 after three years of construction, the Bay Bridge now carries 280,000 vehicles every day along its total length of 8.4 miles. The bridge has five westbound lanes on an upper deck and five eastbound lanes on a lower deck. The 1989 Loma Prieta (World Series) earthquake caused a section of the upper lanes to collapse.

In the foreground is the "Cupid's Span" fiberglass sculpture, created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, located in Rincon Park. The sculpture and the park were donated to the City of San Francisco by Donald and Doris Fisher owners of the retailer Gap, Inc. which they founded in San Francisco in 1969. On the right is the Ferry Building Clock Tower.

Coit Tower was build in 1933 at the summit of Telegraph Hill as a monument to San Francisco's volunteer firefighters. Legend says that the 210 foot tower's fluted walls and porticoed observation deck were made to resemble the nozzle of a firehose, but its architect Arthur Brown insisted that was not his intention.

The eccentric Lillie Hitchcock Coit left $100,000 to the city of San Francisco for beautification of the city upon her death in 1929. Having had a life-long obsession with fires and firefighters, the tower to commemorate the city's volunteer firefighters seemed appropriate.

Located off the northwest corner of San Francisco near the historic Cliff House and 400 feet into the Pacific Ocean, Seal Rocks have long been a safe haven for sea lions. For ten months of the year sea lions would congregate here, sunning themselves on the rocks, playing in the surf, and barking boisterously the whole time which can be quite eerie when everything is covered in thick fog.

From late June through August, the sea lions take some time off, and head south to the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara to breed, but never fail to return when autumn arrives. Since the 1989 earthquake, however, the sea lions have added the more protected Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf to the places they call home.

The Dutch Windmill, built in 1902 and restored in 1981, located in the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden, named in 1962 for the late queen of the Netherlands, houses a pumping station which irrigates Golden Gate Park.

In 1967, the Summer of Love put the dilapidated San Francisco neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury forever in the history books as the epicenter of the anti-establishment hippie movement which sought peace, love, understanding...and drugs. Haight-Ashbury was also the home to the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. (I illegally parked our car, hopped out, took some photos, and got the heck out of there as fast as I could out of fear that I might have my membership in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy revoked.)

San Francisco's Alamo Square is lined with Victorian houses including the most famous "Six Sisters" or "Painted Ladies." They were built in the mid-1890s by developer Matthew Kavanaugh in an elaborate Queen Anne style and are painted in multiple colors to draw attention to the elements of the design.

The Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline, soars 853 feet into the air and consists of forty-eight stories topped by a hollow, illuminated, 212 foot spire. It was designed by architect William Pereira and was completed in 1972 after being downsized from its planned fifty-five stories and 1000 foot height after locals...doing what they do best and often...protested what they vulgarly called "Pereira's Prick" as being too big, flashy and corporate.

Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Crookedest Street in the World," Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets on Russian Hill contains eight sharp turns or switchbacks. The design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and instituted in 1922, was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural twenty-seven degree slope which was too steep for most vehicles to climb and a serious hazard to pedestrians to a more reasonable sixteen degree incline.

After witnessing brutal accidents involving a teams of horses falling and sliding on their sides, pulled by their cargo, down San Francisco's notorious hills, Scottish inventor Andrew Hallidie designed and built the first cable car system which was successfully debuted on August 1, 1873. So successful was the system that allowed expansion to previously impractical areas of the city that by the 1906 earthquake the city had almost 600 cable cars running along 110 miles of track.

Today, San Francisco's cable car fleet consists of forty-four cars of which as many as twenty-seven may be operating at any given time. There are now just ten miles of track consisting of three separate lines. Despite its reduced size, the system carries nearly 36,000 passengers daily for an annual total of thirteen million. These photos are from the Powell-Hyde Line at the Powell Street turntable at Hallidie Plaza.

The ornate Chinatown Gateway, also known as "Dragon's Gate," was designed by Clayton Lee in 1970 and serves as the main portal to San Francisco's Chinatown.

The iconic green tiled structure heralds the entrance to Grant Avenue, Chinatown's bustling center of tourism.

San Francisco's National Maritime Museum with a passing cruise ship in the background.

Just some row houses along the Embarcadero Waterfront that I thought were attractive and which rounds out my twenty pictures from San Francisco.

Continuing on with pictures from our recent trip to Napa Valley and San Francisco, here is a snap of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Total Bridge Length: 8981 feet (1.7 miles)
Suspended Length: 6450 feet (1.2 miles)
Center Span Length: 4200 feet (0.8 miles)
Width of Bridge: 90 feet, 6 lanes

Height of Towers From Water: 746 feet
Height of Towers Above Roadway: 500 feet

Length of Each Cable: 7650 feet
Diameter of Each Cable: 36 3/8 inches
Number of Wires (0.192 inches in diameter) in Each Cable: 27,572
Length of Wire Used in Both Cables: 80,000 miles

Vehicles Crossing Daily in 2003-04: 106,525
Vehicles Crossing in Year 2003-04: 38,881,684
Vehicles Crossing Since Opening: 1,805,663,417

Annual Toll Revenue in 2003-04: $84,419,500
Daily Toll Revenue in 2003-04: $231,286
Toll Revenue Since Opening: $1,349,053,056

Initial Cost: $33 million
Estimated Cost to Build Today: $1.2 Billion

Construction Started: January 5, 1933
Opened: May 27, 1937 to pedestrians, vehicles the next day

Six Seven more pictures we took of the Golden Gate Bridge can be found by clicking on "continue reading."

This year's OADC (Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel) meeting was held in Napa Valley, California. The firm sponsored trip spanned five days and allowed us to take a full day to sightsee San Francisco (more pictures in the following days). It drizzled a little on us at the airport when we first arrived. But, after that, we had absolutely perfect weather, sunny and in the seventies.

The trip included Drew's first flight (actually, first four flights) which he made without shedding a tear. Everyone kept commenting about what a great traveler he was. He just goes with the flow. Drew also gets to add another state to his collection of travels (CA, CO, IL, KS, MO, OK and TX).

The events schedule was light which allowed for lots of wine tasting and tours. These pictures are from the Honig Vineyard & Winery.

Today Drew, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Youngman and Aunt Catherine went to the Tulsa Zoo. The Tulsa Zoo won the title of "America's Favorite Zoo" in a contest held last year by Microsoft in connection with their Zoo Tycoon 2 game. The Tulsa Zoo covers 78 acres and has nearly 1,500 animals from 436 different species.

During April through July, the Tulsa Zoo has two male koalas, Maloo and Coombah, on loan from the San Diego Zoo.

Click on "continue reading" to see many more photos from the Tulsa Zoo.

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!

Notice the keg next to the tiger? I think he had a late night!

Mr. bear was less than a cooperative model.

I caught Mr. Elephant in the middle of his dust shower.

The giraffes have one of the largest, and tallest, habitats.

The rhinos continued on with the day's theme: Rest & Sleep.

The cheetahs, doing what cats do best.

The chimpanzees were resting too.

The meerkats were absolutely hilarious!

The seals were in full non-stop swim mode.

The African Penguins were quite active and looked like they were having fun.

This guy is probably one of the oldest residents of the zoo.

I caught Mr. Iguana smiling.

A colorful little fellow.

No animal just stands around as much as the flamingos.

Of course, a Memorial Day Weekend trip to the zoo wouldn't be complete without, and there is no better way to finish this post than with, an American Bald Eagle.

I made a day trip to Wewoka, Oklahoma, for work last week. Population approximately 3500. It's a nice little town.

With regard to the topic I generally don't talk about here (i.e., work), lets just say that I was treated more fairly in Wewoka than I was in Oklahoma City last week or in one of Tulsa's neighboring cities this week.

I was recently at the Tulsa Expo Center and snapped a few photos of the Tulsa Driller. Considering it was night, they came out much better than I thought they would. The one below is completely unretouched except for resizing it.

For no particular reason, I snapped a few pictures from the office this week with my cell phone. Yale Avenue from 71st to 81st is being expanded from two lanes to five:

This is the view of downtown Tulsa from my building:

Finally, I was downtown for a meeting this week in the Mid-Continent Tower. It was overcast and rainy. On the left is the Williams Tower (where my better half used to work), officially Bank of Oklahoma Tower or BOk and on the right is the incredibly ugly WilTel building, formerly Williams Communications:

We all recently visited the family farm which is rented out to a really nice family. They have a bull. For whatever reason, they "kept" the bull separate from the rest of the heard. Here is the bull in his pen:

We wanted to get closer to the bull to get some photos and approached his pen in our usual loud boisterous family manner. The bull was less enthused about our visit. He tried jumping/rammed the gate on our right. Then he tried jumping/rammed the gate on our left. Then he succeeded in jumping/ramming through the gate on our right:

The whole thing was pretty funny to us city-dwellers, but we were grateful the bull was not of the same temperament as my grandfather's bull, Abernathy. Abernathy would not have messed around with trying to flee but, rather, would have attacked through the fence that was in front of us and which would not have required two tries to knock down.

We all recently went to the Tulsa Artists' Coalition Gallery to see the art work of the daughter of one of my coworkers. It was Drew's first art exhibit.

The artist had on display a collection of her drawings, paintings and sculptures. Fortunately, Drew is still too young to have asked any why-are-the-ladies-naked type questions.

On a recent trip to Dallas, we visited Pioneer Plaza next to the Dallas Convention Center famous for its bronze statues of 40 longhorn cattle herded by 3 cowboys on horses created by artist Robert Summers.

As the saying goes, if you're not first...the view is always the same.

World66 lets you create maps of places you have visited (or any other listing such as places to which you ship products). Below is a map of the countries I have visited. You can also create maps for US States, Canadian Provinces and European Countries.

If you can't tell, the countries highlighted in red are: Australia (visited), Denmark (visited), France (visited), Iran (visited), Mexico (visited), Mozambique (lived), Netherlands (lived), Norway (lived), Pakistan (visited), South Africa (visited), Sweden (visited), Thailand (lived), the United Kingdom (visited) and the United States (lived).

The only other country I've technically been to is Kenya on a flight stop over which I don't count as having visited since I never left the plane. My sister however, then still a child, ran off the plane into the airport--the little cheat--so I suppose she gets to count Kenya on her list.

While I'm on the topic, Lizard Point, has a nice geography quiz for identifying states and countries. (Europe is tough since the break up of the Soviet Union.)

On Friday, my work sponsored a night out at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks for all employees and their families.

Be sure to "continue reading" for more photos and a shark video!

Just click on the shark below to see the video:

Last week I went to Chicago on business and got to spend a day with my mom and Donelda. The three of us, along with Sue and Harry, went downtown to Geja's Cafe for some fondue. The meal started out with a cheese board of Aged Wisconsin Swiss, Aged Wisconsin Cheddar, French Brie, Swiss Gruyère, Italian Bel Paese and Dutch Edam along with rye bread, apple slices, grapes and the house merlot. Next came salad and cheese-fondue. Then the main course of chicken breast, beef tenderloin, jumbo Gulf shrimp, lobster tail and fresh vegetables all cooked in hot oil and dipped in a variety of sauces. Finally, flaming chocolate fondue for roasting a few marshmallows before dipping pound cake, apples, bananas, cherries, melons, pineapples and strawberries. After all that we just rolled ourselves home.

The only thing that could have made the evening better was that it happened to be Geja's 39th Anniversary and the bill was 39% off the regular prices!

Thanks to my employer, we all got to enjoy five days and four nights (really just four days and four nights) at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas last week.

Drew enjoyed the pillow chocolates but like a true Danz, he wasn't satisfied with just one.

Drew wasn't much for keeping his sunglasses on.

A lifeguard in training: working on the tan and getting thrown into the air.